


L'écorce calcinée

by orphan_account



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, No trees were harmed in the making of this fanfiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 12:12:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14135802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When Sakura was five, there was a beautiful cherry blossom tree in her house's backyard.One day, she fell asleep under it and met a beautiful woman with pink hair, just like the Sakura-tree petals, who looked very nice and friendly.And then it all burned down.





	L'écorce calcinée

One of Sakura's first memories was when she was five.

There was a big, tall cherry blossom tree planted besides her house, and in the rare moments when her mom was home, she had told her the tree was a Sakura, like her.

The little girl liked it: it was _pretty_ , the flowers were the same color as her hair – which reassured her because some mean people kept telling her that her hair was  _ unnatural _ – and it was also called  _ Sakura _ , the prettiest of all names. Somehow, she ended up thinking of the tree as a sister, a twin. A peculiar, non-human twin but to her it was basically family and she loved to spend hours under it, talking to it as if it were a friend or a close relative.

* * *

One day, Sakura fell asleep under the tree and she had the most vivid dream she remembered ever having.

She was running on a bright green hill, skipping around and giggling under the sun. As she reached the top, she noticed a person lying on the grass and wearing a big white kimono like one of those Sakura's father sold to rich people—well, the first thing she _actually_ noticed was that the person's hair was  _ pink _ , the same hue as Sakura's own hair, and that the locks were very long. The girl knelt besides the sleeping person, who moved imperceptibly and smiled.

"Hello." The person began, not bothering to open their eyes.

"H-hello." Mimicked Sakura shyly as she didn't know how else to greet the stranger. Was it the morning, the afternoon ? Could she use a more familiar greeting or was it rude ? "Are you a Sakura too ?"

"Why would you think that ?" wondered the person without a trace of annoyance in their tone.

"I have pink hair and I'm called Sakura, the cherry tree has pink flowers and it's called Sakura, you have pink hair too, so maybe you're called Sakura too ?" tried Sakura hesitantly, even though she was certain that her logic was sound.

The person chuckled, amused but it didn't seem like they were making fun of her. "I see. Then I suppose you can call me Sakura."

Growing confident, the girl continued with her questions. "Are you a boy or are you a girl ?"

"I am a woman, like you will be." answered the woman easily, before resuming in her deep velvet voice. "May I ask you some questions as well ?"

Flushing bright red with sudden shame, Sakura sputtered "Yes of course. Sorry for not asking permission first."

Again, the woman chuckled. It wasn't like Sakura's female classmates' high-pitched laughs, it was lower, more refined. "No need to apologize, you didn't mean any harm." Sakura nodded, her face still flushed, before she realized the woman couldn't see her behind closed eyes. "Now, Sakura, do you have a dream for the future ?"

It was a question Sakura was asked quite often. Her parents occasionally asked her what she wanted to be when she was older, it was the same at school at the beginning of the year when the teachers asked that the children introduced themselves one by one. But Sakura never knew exactly what to say. She was bullied quite often, so part of her wanted her to become strong and not be made fun of anymore, and maybe protect others. But that kind of dream seemed dumb. It was like the kid who shouted he wanted to become the next Hokage to whoever was in hearing range.

"There's no need to feel embarrassed, Sakura. Whatever your dreams or goals are, you shouldn't be ashamed of them." The woman took a deep breath. "When I was a child, my only dream was to be a woman my parents could have been proud of. It changed over time, since I couldn't achieve this dream and I learnt that I should live for myself, but I don't regret this dream."

"I..." Sakura gulped. "I want to be strong," was all she could say, her throat tight around the words. She still felt like it was a weird thing to say to a refined lady like the other Sakura seemed to be.

"Oh? Do you have an objective in mind ?" she asked gently.

"I... I don't want to be bullied anymore. I want to be so strong that no one tries to hurt me or make fun of me anymore." She didn't say she wanted to help others because, oddly, it sounded like a lie and she didn't want to tell lies to the pretty woman. What she knew for sure was that she hated feeling weak when Ami and her gang made fun of her.

"Do you know how you could become strong ?" asked the other Sakura.

"I know ninja are strong." mused Sakura. "So if I become a ninja, I'll become strong. Is that what you mean ? But I need to be strong to become a ninja. Even if I go to the Academy, I still won’t be stronger than my classmates. Some of them come from ninja clans and some of them are geniuses…”

“You don’t have any ninja relative, Sakura?”

She shook her head. “No. My mother comes from a family of merchants and my father is a doctor. I know they want me to become like either of them but I don’t want to. They’re away all the time.”

“It’s understandable, Sakura.” conceded the woman gently. “How about I give you something to help you with your dream?”

Sakura’s head perked up, green eyes wide open in surprise. “I can’t accept, it would be too much...” she swallowed, eyes wet. “I just can’t, I’m sorry.”

“Oh." The other Sakura tilted her head, a disappointed expression on her face now. "I didn’t realize you would be so… frank in your refusal.”

Sakura’s head dropped and she repeated “I’m sorry.” She was shaking, throat tight and a weird knot in her belly. Part of her was screaming that she was stupid and she should have accepted.

“Don’t be, Sakura. I understand how sudden it seems and how uncomfortable I must make you feel.”

The woman sat up to kneel on the grass, her face turned in Sakura’s direction. She opened her dark green eyes - not the exact same color as Sakura’s but they still felt familiar. It was like facing an older sister, an old twin, herself in a decade or so. She couldn’t tell the woman’s age, she didn’t seem older that twenty or thirty but she seemed wiser than anyone Sakura had ever seen in her five years of being alive, except maybe the Hokage, but she didn’t know him personally so it didn’t really count.

“Also, I must apologize,” the woman said with a smile. “I made you think you had a choice in the matter but you really don’t. From the moment you confided in the Cherry Blossom tree, from the moment you decided it was as much of a family or a friend as a human being, from the moment you fell asleep against its bark, you have chosen to share its fate and to become one with it. Now, _you are ready to become a tree, Sakura Haruno_.”

And with this ominous statement, the woman clapped her hands once and Sakura woke up gasping for air.

Sakura blinked, her dream as vivid in her memory as if she had actually been on that hill and talked with that pink-haired woman. It was weird. Sakura imagined it was linked to what her parents kept telling her jokingly - if you keep spending time with that tree, you’ll become one someday.

So Sakura stood up, glancing at the tree with a terrified look on her face, and then went home.

It was still empty, but Sakura just wanted to go back to normalcy, the tree seemed scary now, its trunk distorted in a snarling, threatening face. The little girl shuddered and picked up a schoolbook to study and hopefully stop thinking about the nightmare.

Around the evening, big clouds started to form in the sky and drops of rain fell against the windows. Sakura sighed as she glanced at the cherry tree from her window before she looked back at her book. She didn’t understand all that theory all that well, but if she wanted to become stronger, she had to do it. A flash of light and thunder soon followed, startling Sakura. She went to her bedroom and closed the door before jumping under the covers, tucking her head under as other rays of lightning struck. She must have been tired, because sleep came unusually easily.

* * *

  
“...Sakura! Wake up!”

It was her father’s voice, panicked.

“D-dad?”

Raindrops fell on her. She blinked slowly. Didn’t she fall asleep inside? A burning smell lingered. It was way too hot outside. She frowned and sat up, rubbing her eyes. A glimpse of a huge wall of water falling on the flames eating her house — what remained of the house — finished waking her up.

“Dad! What happened?” cried Sakura, looking at the figure of her father. They were in the street in front of the house where a little group of ninja was taking care of the burning remnants. Mud was soaking her clothes and her father’s but she didn’t care. Her home was destroyed, and the tree…

Wide green eyes looked at the blackened trunk besides the blackened remnants of the house. No pink petals, pretty flowers, budding sticks… it had been burned and it was the last straw, Sakura started crying, bawling her eyes out before sobbing quietly in her father’s warm jacket. No long after, a ninja wearing a green jacket came up to them and said: “I’m sorry, we can usually take care of that kind of things quickly but…” he made a shrugging weird movement “we couldn’t here. Our sensors have picked up unusual amount of chakra around the tree, do you have any idea why that may be the case?”

Sakura’s father shook his head and the girl did the same, still sobbing and ignoring the feeling that maybe the nightmare had something to do with it. It was just a dream, nothing else.

The chunin sighed. “I see. We’ll have to start an investigation. People have seen lightning striking the tree over here and the fire may have propagated from there, but we’ll have to take into account that it may be a criminal act. Do you know anyone who might have wanted to do this? Any enemies? Rivals?”

“Not that I know of. I’m a doctor and few times in my career I misdiagnosed or failed to correctly heal our patients but we all do our best and they know it. However, there had been a problem with…”

Sakura stopped listening as her father talked about certain patients who seemed reluctant and agressive towards him but assured that he was certain they wouldn’t go light his house on fire, especially if his daughter was inside.

Then the chunin knelt besides the girl and asked her more or less the same thing. Any threats, any bullies, anything weird or unusual. Sakura mentioned her dream, and if the chunin seemed disappointed at first - a little girl’s imagination wasn’t likely to be linked to the accident - he quickly frowned and seemed to be actively thinking.

“Might be genjutsu.” He mumbled under his breath before meeting her wide green eyes. “You’ll have to follow me. We need to make sure you’re both healthy and whatever caused the incident didn’t harm you in any way.”

Both Harunos nodded, uncertain, but the chunin seemed to know what he was talking about.

* * *

 

Sakura was exhausted when the Yamanaka finally came out of her mind. It was a really weird, uncomfortable sensation even though it was obvious that the blond man was doing his best not to hurt her. The fact remained someone had penetrated her mind and she wanted to puke.

For the second time in a few days - and although part of Sakura wanted to argue she wasn’t a baby - her dad took her in his arms. She didn’t complain, the shock still freezing her mind and her dad was warm, reassuring. She didn’t want to think about what they were going to do now, without a house, without their home. Sakura had also lost her confident, as stupid as it may sound, and she was still mourning its death.

She barely heard her father politely thank the Yamanaka and say his goodbyes before they left.

“Where are we going, dad?”

“To my sister’s house.” he answered, and Sakura noticed an uneasy feeling around him. He had never mentioned a sister before and Sakura didn’t think it would be a good idea to ask him about her. Fortunately, he started talking. “She died a long time ago, during a mission.” Her green eyes widened: she wasn't the only one in the family who had chosen to follow the path of the ninja! “I…” he choked on the sound “I’ll talk to you about her when we get there, okay?”

Sakura nodded, and then asked, still wondering about her new house “Since we didn't use it, why didn’t the house get sold?”

“Ume didn’t want any of her things gone, she said she wanted them to be given to anyone in that ‘damned family who could grow a fucking spine’, her words not mine.” he chuckled grimly.

The house was fairly close, it was small and dusty, but it could easily hold the three Haruno under its roof without them feeling too cramped.

"Let's clean up some rooms and then get some sleep, all right?"

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I hope you all enjoyed reading this fanfiction! :D


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